Groceries on the cheap is looking at the Put Dinner On The Table meal train from a different
pro spective. The emphasis is on purchasing good food( shelf- stable/ freezer staples )at the lowest possible cost and purchasing enough to last you until it goes on sale again -- Keeping a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a regular basis. It means that when you shop, rather than purchasing just what you need for a day or a week, you buy a loss leader protein, produce you will need on sale, a stock item if it's a RBP, and dairy instead. This allows you to put well balanced meals on the table consistently for a four dollar a day budget per person. You spend more time on the planning and shopping end of the meal train and less on the cooking end by cooking efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on four dollars a day, spending more isn't hard. You still get more bang for your buck.
With the lack of sales ads last week, I had to resort to going to the stores and making a quick glance of the in store ads or just walking the store. It doesn't take long, I can get in and our of a store pretty quickly. If an isle doesn't have what I need or use, I skip it. That means I am going down about four isles and across the back of grocery outlet. The freezer is full, so I skipped the frozen isle. I checked the coffee price and moved on to the cheese that I did need. I stopped by QFC for meds and picked up grapes because they were cheaper and better quality than anywhere else. Fred Meyers was a planned trip as well as Winco. They have been my go to chains since Haggens took over Alberways and jacked the prices up. I go when there is something I need and it's a loss leader. I plan trips to piggy back on to other errands to save on gas. We have a very fuel efficient car. I hit QFC for meds when I got my haircut. I hit grocery outlet when I had business deliveries to make. I hit Winco after the doctors. That means that Fred Meyers was the only store I went to by itself. I had planned the trip and knew exactly what I was going to buy. It made getting in and out fast. I probably spent less time on all four stores than if I had walked Costco and got in and out of its parking lot. lol. I don't do two hundred dollar grocery hauls. Most of the time my ticket is 15-30 dollars a store. Sometimes less. We go to Costco on a need to basis. It's close to the house and we get gas at the same time.
I brought home the split chicken breast from Fred Meyers and deboned them and made stock from the bones. We'll have chicken soup for lunch. Mid week, I cleaned out the fridge and noted what needed to be used and what we needed to fill in for perishables for the weeks meals.
I can't emphasize enough how important it is to know the answer to what's for dinner question at least early on the day. It affords you the ability to plan to use up all your perishables and not waste. It also staves off the order pizza demons. lol. It gives children a sense of security.
I don't spend a lot of time cooking. I have found ways to cook things with passive cooking. I am 70 years old and I am still learning, I try new things. I tried rice in the crock pot. I used a controlled amount of rice so that I wasnt wasting a lot if it was a bust! I tried brown rice in the microwave. It works out better for us and is very easy. You can cook the rice while you cook the rest of the dinner or earlier in the day. Just remember, rice and beans are not supposed to be left out of the fridge after cooking more than two hours and not in the fridge when they are in a dish more than two days. These things spoil fast. It's not worth a few cents of rice or beans to make your family sick.
Tonight we are having breakfast for dinner. Last night we had a salmon noodle casserole with peas and fruit salad. The cantaloupe I bought for two dollars a fofty cents Sunday was really ripe. We ate some last night and I out the rest on a green box so that it quit ripening until I got it used up. We will have fruit again for dinner with our eggs and hash browns.
Next weeks plans are done and are coordinated to use up things we need to use before pull dates. I got taco shells with the sauces for a buck at grocery outlet. It has an April pull date. Well eat them this week.
We have a fair amount of lettuce, so we will have salad a few times. I bought lettuce for the tacos. We have more burritos and enchiladas on the winter when lettuce is at a premium or doesn't look good. Flexibility helps stretch your food dollar because you can use the things that are cheap on the marketplace at any particular point in time.
The Sunday paper is here. Will post Fred Meyers on another blog.
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